Google Music Beta Review

At This Years Google I/O, they announced something called Music Beta. We got our hands on a copy of it and have been playing around with it for the past couple of days. Here is our full review on the Music Beta from Google.

What Google Music Beta

Google Music Beta is a way to store your music online. To put it simply it is a online storage space for your music. It can be compared to the Amazon Music Cloud. It integrates right into your google account, this makes it very easy to find. However google did not get agreements with record labels to be able to sell music. So, it is just for storing your music. It is more for basic music listeners. The people who listen regularly and buy regularly may not find it as good. However the idea is great. You put your music there, and you can listen to it from any web browser.

Pricing

For right now Google Music Beta is in “Beta” right now. Google said this, “At least while it’s in beta, the service is free.”. So after beta we are assuming you will have to pay for it. In beta you can hold up to 20,000 songs. How ever they have not given any hints to pricing, so we don’t know if it will be price by number of song or by space(gigabytes). It can be uploaded at any bit-rate. However if the pricing turns out be to high, Google may be losing some customers.

What Formats Work With Google Music Beta

Google Music Beta works with MP3, AAC, WMA, and FLAC. This was not the best to hear. It only accepts 4 types of file formats. This closes the door’s of the Google Music Beta for many other users. They transcode the FLAC files your upload into MP3’s, due to the file sizes. This is by the worst part about the Google Music Beta.

Getting Music Onto The Google Music Beta

To get the music on you need to use “Music Manger”. It is an application that you have to install onto your computer. It is quite simple to install. First it will ask you if you would like some of there “Free Music” that they are offering to you. This is optional in case you don’t like any of it. After this it tells you to download “Music Manger”, this is mandatory. Once this is installed, you can decide where to pick your music from whether it is a folder or an app they will all work. Please note that you can not choose what to upload one you select the folder or the app. It uploads everything in it. So, make sure to have only what you want to have uploaded in that folder. This is also a bad side of Google Music Beta. You can also not pause the uploading process, once you start it there is no going back. This is taking away a lot of control from the user. You can not actually play the music from Music Manger. You have to click the button inside of Music Manager that will open up the web page were you can play and enjoy your music.

Google Music Beta Interface

The Interface of Google Music Beta is simple and gets the job done. Once your music has been uploaded, you can access on the web using Google Music Beta. It will show all of your albums on the home page. You can see your New and Recent, Songs, Artists, Albums, and Genres. This is a nice way to organize the music. Under that you have your Auto Playlists, Instant Mixes, & Playlists. You also have the option to shuffle through all of your music. To play a song, click on the album. The you can see all of the songs in that album. From there you click on the song you want and it plays. You can also give the song a “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down”. If you give it a “Thumbs Up”, it can be used in your auto-playlists “Thumbs Up” section. This is a nice feature, that should come in hand. You can also search your whole library and find a song or artist. This is a great feature. At the bottom of the screen you have your controls. They are Backwards, Play, Forwards, Track Info, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Shuffle Songs, Repeat Songs, & Volume. Speaking of Volume, the sound quality is very good. We are surprised at this, even though it is in beta the Sound Quality is great. You can also go to Settings, Help, My Account, & Sign Out. In setting you can see the number of songs in your library, report a problem, withdraw from Music Beta, & manage devices. My Account will take you to Google’s Account Page. Help will teach you how to use Music Beta. You can also download the Android App, this is the easiest way to access Music Beta on your Android Powered Smart Phone. Overall the Google Music Beta Interface is a nice way to store, listen, and enjoy your music online.

Bottom Line

Google Music Beta is good for a “beta”. We assume it may be different when the full version gets released. It still has a long ways to go, before it becomes the best one out there. There needs to be more control for the user, rather than having everything pre-set. Overall it should be good for a basic music listener, who is interested in having access to there music anywhere. The biggest issue as of right now is how much will the full Google Music cost. Were hopping it will not cost a lot of money, how ever we are not sure. It is only available to the US right now, Google said it to hard to “Nail A Global Launch”, this is understandable as it is Google’s first step in storing Music in the cloud. When it does launch they will need a lot of band-with available, so everyone can listen to there music. If Google’s prices aren’t that high this will be a great service for the basic music listener, we will just have to wait and see. You Can Sign-Up To Get An Invite To Google Music Beta Here. We would like thank Google for providing us with a copy of “Google Music Beta”.

Jacob Krol is the founder, CEO, and editor in chief of NJTechReviews. He created the site in 2010 and most recently gave it a big redesign in 2014. Jacob is a sophomore at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. He has a big love for all things tech, he's a huge Springsteen fan, and he is also a native New Jerseyan.